Gennerally Ppl Say "they Desearve Each Other" As An Offense, But With Jeremy And Jean I Can Confidentely

the thing about neil and jean is that i very much feel like their relationship is mirrored in andrew & aaron's relationship. the 'misplaced forever partner' vs. 'the brother who was given away.'

the way neil was abused but he was KEPT, he had a mother who gave her life to fight for him vs. jean who was sold and forgotten and abandoned, stripped of his own name and his language, who had to survive riko and the master and the complicated dynamics of being perfect court but also property, who had to navigate the nest and all its horrors and hierarchy completely alone.

aaron who was abused, who was beaten and strung along and neglected, but who his mother came back for vs. andrew who was left behind, who never had a last name, who said 'please' so much at seven he can't stand the sound of the word at 21, who was willing to carve pieces from himself for the promise of a scrap of family.

andrew and aaron made a deal and hated each other for it. jean and neil were each others partners - your failure is my failure, your success is my success. andrew, who killed aaron's mother when he found out she was beating him, to hold up his end of the deal. jean, who held neil down to be carved, but who patched him up again after.

aaron, who killed his brother's rapist. and neil who did the same

cody and jean's friendship is genuinely so important to me, because how often do you think cody ever meets someone who doesn't acknowledge their transness on first instinct? because as a trans person, i can guarantee not once in their life has anyone ever been so nonchalant about their pronouns, and then here comes this 6'3 sheltered french man who most definitely has them internally bracing for questions ("they? but you're only one person." "yeah, but what are you really?" "she— he— oops, i mean they. sorry, it's just so hard for me!") but then they meet jean and all it takes is hearing their teammates use they/them once for him to pick it up effortlessly. jean, who's been sheltered in a cult his entire life. jean, who's too afraid of his own sexuality to even look at jeremy for too long. jean, whose native language has little to no accommodations to be gender neutral. jean would be the first person they'd expect to be confused or hostile, and they probably wouldn't even fault him for it if he was. but he isn't. he treats cody like a human being first and doesn't ask a single question as to why he should.

and then there's the other side of the coin. jean is used to his eating disorder being a topic of discussion by this point, and his fixations with numbers and measurements being scrutinized rather than gently counteracted. cat helps by teaching him to cook, and jeremy and laila try too, but even then he's still surrounded by nutrition facts and labels and calculations to lose himself in. but then cody notices, and they keep noticing, and as subtly as possible they start to find tiny things jean enjoys to brighten up his day. they ask cat what fruits he likes and bring him peaches and buckets of strawberries, snacks without a label to lose himself in or visible numbers to panic over. and they don't force him to have them, but they're visibly elated and encouraging when he does, and when he actually enjoys them. jean doesn't make cody feel like a burden for something they can't control, so cody refuses to do the same. they just want to help, to make sure he eats, and to make sure he enjoys eating.

and fuck, dude, i can't stop thinking about them.

jean and his lil peach has me emotional

Ex raven Neil would be a menace for the jerejean relationship. Jeremy thinks he's scary now? Give Neil years of attachment to Jean as his one and only lifeline and you'll learn what terror really means. He doesn't even like Jean like that (definitely obsessed with that one foxes goalkeeper) but he WILL threaten anyone who even tries. He thinks it's funny. Jean is so used to it he just sighs and moves on. Jeremy ends up playing matchmaker to andreil JUST to get Neil out of his life because God is it scary to wake up and see blue eyes just staring at you. Mind you Neil is already on the foxes lineup. How in god's green earth he has enough time to show for dinner once a week Jeremy will never understand. He locks eyes with Andrew and they're both overcome by a neuro telepathical bond of suffering for whatever the hell that is. Last year it was as bad (for Andrew, at least) because Jean was still in the nest and Neil couldn't just come and go there, but now he can and does.

Jeremy is brave and all but having the known son of a Mafia boss in his face telling him very clearly that jean is first and foremost his best friend? Yeah no I would run for the hills Jeremy you stubborn fool that's a RED flag.

Bonus points if both Jean and Neil think this is Neil behaving. Jean is actually pleasantly surprised by how calm Neil is being.

Wymack sitting at the funeral of Riko, the dude who was his estranged son’s codependent brother, who treated him as a pet and mentally and physically abused and tortured him for years. The same dude who also physically abused and orchestrated the gang rape of said estranged son’s best friend. Who then blackmailed one of your players, who knew your son from years back, and let Riko beat the shit out of him over Christmas break because he didn’t want his situation-ship to get hurt, who is your estranged brothers codependent bestie and protector - who riko also orchestrated the abuse of anyway. And then your team proceeded to beat him in the championships, where he tried to kill one said player before the other broke his arm and then his brother who runs the Japanese mafia killed him and framed it as a suicide. And now you sitting next to said estranged son, who people blame his death on, watching him grieve this absolute psychopath cause that’s just how much he fucked him up.

Wymack: *thank god this isn’t awkward or anything*

To be honest, they have been the victims of crimes more times then they have actually committed crimes

I think this has to change

Time to be gay, do crime

my take is they should do more crime actually

My friend,

Sorry if i bother you but my family and I are going through very difficult times, and I am doing everything I can to overcome them, but I can no longer do it alone💔. I never thought I would be in this situation, but life sometimes puts us through tough tests. Please, read my story as if you were in the place of your brother's, your friends, or your loved ones. If anyone can offer help, even something small, it would make a difference beyond words.

Please don’t ignore my message—every bit of support, no matter how small, could be a lifeline for us.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 🥺♥️

Please donate and share, any help can make a difference

Unfortunetely Im not in a position to donate right now, but Im sharing in hopes somebody who sees it is in a position to

I haven't seen anyone commenting on this, but did yall noticed Kevin and Andrew were sharing the SAME bag for their LA trip???

Like, they brought one single carry-on, with all of their things for the trip on it (probably with their cloths kind of mixed in there too)

Andrew Minyard, who is super protective of his space and things, is out here sharing a bag with Kevin Day

Nora, please, don't make me dream

I will collapse, Im not joking

God, I live off the crumbs that Nora gives and I still beg for more

Girl, I NEED this so much 😭😭😭

This would literally be amazing!!

Other super cool ep: a shot of Mary telling Neil that girls are trouble, he shouldnt think about love, that it is too dangerous to fall in love....and then it cuts to him kissing Andrew for the first time

I swear, this would be so amazing

Aftg series adaptation idea:

Every episode starts with a brief flashback to Neil's life on the run/ his childhood, and at the end of it, the scene cuts to a contradicting thing he does in the present (which would be the plot of that ep).

Like, for example, "i have been running for 9 years, always hiding, staying out of sight, (bla bla u get the picture)" and then BOOM it cuts to Neil dressed up on live TV. Like ??? Yknow, and then it proceeds with the story leading up to that moment.

Or or or

Smth about how he got his scars, some dramatic montage of Neil and Mary fleeing, shots fired in the background, her prying off Neil's kevlar vest to reveal an ugly wound, and then the scene abruptly cuts to that same wound, but healed. Camera pans out, and its Neil showing Abby his scars.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN??

Like there are so many options:

Playing at Evermore as a kid/ ...playing at Evermore

Neil getting struck by an iron/ showing his scars to Andrew (again. Or smth else).

Lola teaching Neil how to cut things/ kidnapping scene

Nathaniel Wesninski/ Neil Josten

Etc.

Like, this way we get bits and pieces to Neil's past like how we do in the books; we're not getting totally info-dumped, but we get insight throughout the books as to who he actually is.

It also works with how strongly Neil holds onto Mary's rules, how sick/ sorry he feels whenever he breaks them, because we can actually see why she was so hell-bent on laying low; she doesn't only come off as some paranoid freak, she had reasons- (This is getting off track, Mary ily).

And then we get to experience pure whiplash as to how crazy Neil's life acctually is without him suppressing/compartmentalizing it.

Ah, a girl can dream...

And even though he does this, the moment he sees Neil he cusses him out for being a disgrace to Exy, bc the day Kevin compliments Neil directly to his face is the day he dies

kevin's pro teammates will never live up to neil josten. kevin lets them know this daily.